Shakespeare’s Coming Home, a film celebrating Birmingham’s Shakespeare heritage, has had its première in the Studio at the city’s Rep theatre.
The film is part of a project, Everything to Everybody—a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and the city council—which aims to “give the city’s uniquely democratic Shakespeare heritage back to the people”.
Shakespeare’s Coming Home involves pages from Shakespeare’s First Folio flying into Birmingham Rep and the Library of Birmingham while a volunteer cast performs the “seven ages of man” speech. Scenes from across Shakespeare’s plays incorporate different languages and British Sign Language.
The film opens with Birmingham Rep board member Adrian Lester and comedian Frank Skinner introducing viewers to Birmingham’s 1623 First Folio. It was bought for the people of Birmingham, is stamped “free libraries of Birmingham” and was part of the council’s aim to provide accessible education for everyone, not just those from wealthy backgrounds.
Lester comments, “Birmingham was and is home to the first great Shakespeare library in the world, established in 1884, and it remains the largest Shakespeare collection held in any public library anywhere.”
Professor Ewan Fernie, project director of Everything to Everybody and chair of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham, said, “Shakespeare’s Coming Home was filmed on the verge of lockdown in 2020 and it’s such a pleasure to be able to share it at last with the people of this great city.
“Over the course of the rest of the year, we’ll be bringing the First Folio to a venue near you and inviting you to one of the exciting exhibitions of this Commonwealth Games year, at our home in the Library of Birmingham.”
Sean Foley, artistic director of the Rep and Shakespeare’s Coming Home, commented, “Adrian and Frank proved to be a natural double act and their presence has made everyone start to understand the incredible untold story of Shakespeare and Birmingham.”
The First Folio tour will begin at Sutton Coldfield Library on 23 April. The tour continues through to October with stops at a range of locations including the Black Country Living Museum, Sense Touchbase Pears, Selly Manor, Highbury Hall, Gap Arts and The Hive in the Jewellery Quarter. The Folio will visit more locations in 2023.
An exhibition, Everything to Everybody: Your Shakespeare, Your Culture, will be part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. It will open on 22 July at the Library of Birmingham and will run until 5 November.
The exhibition invites audiences to immerse themselves in the “unique” story of the People’s Shakespeare Library which is home to more than 40,000 volumes, 17,000 production photographs, 2,000 music scores, hundreds of British and international production posters, 15,000 performance programmes and 10,000 playbills.
Further details are available at the Everything to Everybody web site.